How to Deal With Slow Times at Work

In high school, I ran my father’s drop store from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. during the weekdays.

I loved it because I got paid $12 per hour (which was a lot for kid who had no bills to pay) to do my homework since this was the slowest time of the day.

--ADVERTISEMENT--

Since before I can remember I’ve never been one to waste time.

Being inefficient drives me crazy. And so I always ensure I have something(s) to work on at all times during “the slow times” – whether that be 15 minutes between meetings or two months between projects.

Depending on your speciality, it’s very likely you have robust mess of assets, like, blog posts, PowerPoint presentations, photography, vectors, etc. Slow time is the perfect time to organize, combine and spice up your oldies but goodies and transform these assets in the rough into passive income.

The extra time it takes to document and refine your redundant processes and workflows will be well worth it in the long run. Especially because processes can be repurposed in a multitude of ways.

For instance, you could document your process because you want to outsource this task in the future to a virtual assistant (VA), freelancer or intern. Then you could possibly publish the checklist(s) on your resources’ page or blog so your customers and prospects can utilize it too.

Here’s a few apps that allow you to create reusable processes/checklists:

3. Catch up on Learning.

According to the 2012 Learning Survey by Niace, the adult learning organization, there's a strong correlation between learning and sustained employment.

”Staff who undertake learning activities are more able to adapt to the changing requirements of an organisation and gain a competitive edge in the job market. Candidates who demonstrate that they're conscientious about their personal development are likely to be seen as highly motivated and engaged. Their openness to learning also suggests they're flexible, adaptable and will bring a continuous improvement ethos to the workplace – all of which is appealing to an employer.”

4. Refresh Your Personal Brand and Portfolio.

I usually only do this once per year because it’s very time consuming, but then again, it probably only is such a long process because I only do it annually.

Slow times are great times to conduct a brain dump of everything you’ve done that isn’t listed on your resume or website portfolio and add the projects that make you shine like the superstar that you are.

Test everything on your site, and make sure link and contact forms are working as well.

Have you found yourself with any free time lately? How did you decide to spend it? Tell me in the comments below.

Lauren Holliday is a full-stack marketer, SitePoint's business and marketing editor and the founder of Freelanship, which connects students with project-based internships. Learn more about Lauren on her website.